John Meyer in his recent article in Entrepreneur asks ‘Is Goal Setting Missing From Your Daily Routine’? John continues, ‘Most people either love setting goals or hate them, but is the process even worth it? ‘ In John’s view, ‘It turns out that completing goals that you set might bring you more energy, make you happier and even help you live longer’.
So what is the role of goal setting in Business? Is it an important aspect of daily activities, can it serve to align, focus and direct effort, and will it reinforce a culture of achievement.
A final important question in today’s competitive landscape is, can a goal achievement culture support creativity or does it in fact defeat creativity?
Strategy = Competing => Goal Setting
Strategy is all about how to compete and the role of strategic business planning in delivering on that strategy is direction, alignment and focus across an entire business in pursuit of that strategy/competitiveness.
Lewis Carroll wrote in Alice in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” In business, if you don’t have a strategy you don’t have a path to follow and therefore any goals that you set will be great goals as they can lead you anywhere and in the end, nowhere.
The setting and delivery of goals is a key product of strategic planning and the ability to set and deliver goals is probably one of the most important competitive traits that businesses require today. Coming out of any strategy must be a clear and compelling goal achievement plan that ignites the entire business in their pursuit. But those goals, each and everyone of them, must represent stepping-stones towards the delivery of the strategy the business has set.
So what is the role of goals in business? They are the stepping-stones that lead the business to compete effectively and deliver on its strategy. They enable direction, alignment and focus and therefore the energy of the entire business in being successful.
Goals => Stepping-Stones = Achievement => Passion and Commitment
There is a skill, possibly an Art, in setting the stepping-stones in a goal achievement plan. The stepping-stones represent the logical and pragmatic progression towards to the final objective. They allow a focus on the next immediate step and therefore support its achievement. After six months you look back and see that you have covered 6 steps and to your surprise are so much further along that you would have ever thought. As each step is delivered you celebrate and then refocus and move forward. Nothing reinforces behaviour more than success and repetitive success locks the process in concrete. Achievement has now become part of your business’s DNA and its confidence and capability in being successful are renewed and reinforced, ready for bigger challenges.
Goals & Creativity => Greater Customer Value
Will the pursuit of a goal achievement culture dampen the creativity in your business? The answer lies in how the goals are crafted and the culture of achievement that you create in the delivery of goals. Let’s consider the following quotes:
- ‘A man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. — Oliver Wendell Holmes’
- ‘Nine out of 10 businesses fail, so I came up with a foolproof plan: create 10 businesses. — Robert Kiyosaki’
- ‘Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads. — Erica Jong
These quotes reflect the three traits that must be present for creativity to flourish:
- Challenge the norm
- Learn from failures
- Build courage and experimentation
In developing your goal achievement culture, and plan, its important to remember that strategy is often emergent, unexpected and not deliberate. The blending of a culture of creativity with a goal achievement culture will in fact strengthen both. It will produce a business that can craft goals and deliver them in changing uncertain markets. It will allow you to step away rapidly from your competitors in creating greater value for your customers.
The right goal culture can take your creativity and competitiveness to a new level.
